Your best friend criticizes you, then offers you a compliment. research suggests: the compliment would soften the blow of the criticism, but the combination will still leave you distressed. you will be delighted with the compliment and ignore the criticism. the compliment and criticism will cancel each other out, leaving you in the same state you started in. you will question your friend's reasons for giving the compliment, but not question the reasons for the criticism.

Research suggests the compliment would soften the blow of the criticism, but the combination will still leave you distressed.
You won't be able to ignore the criticism given by your best friend simply because they complimented you afterwards. You are still going to be hurt even a bit by that criticism regardless of whether you were complimented or not. You might be a bit less distraught by the criticism because of the compliment, but you will still feel some discomfort, although less that you would if it weren't for the compliment.