[scandox]

Because, in practice, it turns telling people what they want to hear into a first-class virtue.

>> "We told him about how our land had been stolen and our people were dying. When we finished he shook our hands and said, 'Endeavor to persevere!' ... We thought about it for a long time, 'Endeavor to persevere.' And when we had thought about it long enough, we declared war on the Union."

[johnfn]

In this case, yes, a bunch of college students probably don't want to hear that AI is taking their job. Probably good to read the room, and it is used with your meaning.

But I also think there's an alternate meaning which is "this is not the correct time for this" (with an implicit "there will be a better time"). If your friend is upset they got laid off at their job, it's not the right time to start telling them about your promotion. Read the room, man! You can wait.

[dopamean]

Depending on what the event is and why you were asked to speak telling the audience what they want to hear may be appropriate. If you're a consultant giving a presentation on how a business needs to change it's operations some hard truths may be necessary. At a graduation where students are going into an uncertain job market while loaded with debt... maybe save the hard truths. A little encouragement may be appropriate in that circumstance.

[jpalawaga]

Or, it is saying things in a way that will be actually heard by an audience, regardless of content.

[bigstrat2003]

Not necessarily. When communicating with people, it does you no good if you word your message in a way guaranteed to get their hackles up. You can tell people something they don't want to hear while reading the room - in that case, it means trying to be as empathetic as possible while breaking the unpleasant truth