Final answer:
The principle of social proof may lead to poor judgments when there's confirmation bias enhanced by social media and the internet, or due to false cause fallacies where incorrect causal relationships are assumed. Poor survey design and the Dunning-Kruger effect can also result in misguided reliance on social proof.
Step-by-step explanation:
The principle of social proof can sometimes lead to poor judgments due to incorrect data in two specific types of situations. The first situation is where there's a presence of confirmation bias, which may occur, for example, when people use the internet and social media. These platforms often enhance the confirmation bias by providing content that reinforces a user's existing beliefs, which can be problematic when these beliefs are incorrect or harmful. The second situation involves false cause fallacies where an individual incorrectly connects two events in a cause-and-effect relationship, like assuming a specific clothing item is lucky for a sports team due to a few coincidental wins.
Additional situations where social proof can mislead include instances of poor survey design by pollsters, leading to inaccurate predictions of public opinion, and the Dunning-Kruger effect, where individuals may overestimate their knowledge or ability in a certain area. Moreover, following the bandwagon fallacy can lead to erroneous beliefs just because they are popular, which does not necessarily make them true.