When Milgram asked psychology professionals to estimate the extent to which participants would follow the experimenter's commands in his research, how did their estimates compare to the actual observed rates?

The underestimated the extent of obedience

Explanation:

Milgram conducted an experiment focusing on the conflict between obedience to authority and personal conscience, he examined justifications for acts of genocide offered by those accused at the World War II

In his experiment, there are four factors that influence obedience: Authenticity and closeness of the authority figure, remoteness of the victim, assignment of responsibility and representation or imitating others.

In this study the major reason the participants obey the experimenters commands to shock the learner is because the experimenter seemed to be a legitimate authority figure