「公堂揚善，暗室規過」涉及看場合說話的變通和一味說好話的鄉愿。研究設計一個學生上臺報告表現不佳、好朋友給予回饋的情境故事，操弄表現回饋（批評、讚揚）和場合公開性（公開、私下），請153位大學生評定回饋者的真誠和人情世故，以及他們個人喜歡此人和以為他受社會歡迎的程度。階層迴歸分析發現，在控制混淆變項真誠知覺後，表現回饋和場合公開性在個人喜歡上有交互作用；在社會歡迎上，只發現表現回饋主要效果。而且人情世故知覺在上述兩個效果中都扮演完全中介的角色。此顯示參加者個人喜歡的人情世故是變通，認為鄉愿是比較受社會歡迎的人情世故。最後區別華人文化以仁為基礎的真誠和西方文化忠於自我的真誠，並討論人情世故的虛偽和真誠。

"To praise in public and to criticize in private" is a code of conduct in Confucian culture, in which "speaking appropriately" (flexibility) and "speaking praise invariably" (hypocrite) for different occasions were involved. To understand personal liking and social popularity toward "ren qing shi gu"（人情世故）of university students in modern Taiwan, the study designed a scenario about a student’s poor presentation. The presenter asked his close friend to give feedback. Performance feedback (criticism or praise) and occasion publicity (in public or in private) were manipulated. 153 participants were randomly assigned to one of the 4 conditions. They, as observers, were asked to read the scenario and rate the feedback giver on authenticity, "ren qing shi gu", personal liking and social popularity. When perceived authenticity was controlled in hierarchical regression analysis, it was found that perceived "ren qing shi gu" served as a mediator both in interaction effect of performance feedback and occasion publicity on personal liking, and in main effect of performance feedback on social popularity. Participants personally liked criticism more in private than in public and praise more in public than in private. They believed that whether in public or in private, praise was perceived more socially popular than criticism. Flexibility and hypocrite were different kinds of "ren qing shi gu". In conclusion, difference between authenticity based on "ren", emphasized in Chinese culture, and authenticity based on "true self", emphasized in western culture, was suggested. Hypocrisy and authenticity of "ren qing shi gu" was also discussed.