Before Stanley Milgram conducted his study on obedience, he asked a number of psychiatrists and psychologists how many people would go all the way to the highest voltage under the instructions of the authority. Milgram found that

A) The experts accurately predicted that about 45 percent of the participants would inflict what they thought were dangerous amounts of shock.
B) The experts accurately predicted that about 25 percent of the participants would inflict what they thought were dangerous amounts of shock.
C) The experts greatly underestimated how many participants would inflict what they thought were dangerous amounts of shock.
D) The experts greatly overestimated how many participants would inflict what they thought were dangerous amounts of shock.

Answer: C
Rationale: Before the original experiments, a group of experts—psychiatrists and psychologists—estimated that only a small percentage of the population would obey the psychologist's instructions to continue with the experiment and administer the shocks. Despite this prediction, almost everyone in Milgram's study—more than 75% of the participants—continued administering the shocks past the points where the participant screamed and begged to leave the study. Sixty-five percent continued to increase the shocks until they reached 450 volts—the highest amount possible.