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Diplomacy or Insincerity?

How often do you hear people talking badly about someone behind their back, and then when they're actually with that person, you couldn't possibly believe they would harbour those kind of thoughts about them if you didn't know any better? Probably quite often is my answer.

I have always found it interesting that people find it so hard to be absolutely truthful and honest about
what they think of other people. Maybe it's because they know that their opinion won't mean much to the other person and it's just an easy way of making conversation with another person to talk about other people. Perhaps it's a matter of being diplomatic; not because you agree, but because you don't want to disagree and cause problems.

It is important to be polite and respectful, obviously, but where does diplomacy between two people turn into insincerity? 

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