These verses are meant to stand in contrast to the people’s reaction to a prophet telling them to repent. The true prophet crying repentance (verse 26) they will attempt to kill, but to a false prophet flattering them, to that person they will listen.
Social: Samuel’s condemnation of their treatment of true prophets had already happened. On the strength of that, we may assume that verses 27 and 28 also reflect the reality of the current beliefs. The way Samuel catalogues this particular sin is sufficient that we can identify the return of an old nemesis of the Nephite gospel. These people have embraced the order of Nehor.
The first description of current Nephite belief is that they believe the man who preaches: “walk after the pride of your own hearts…. And do whatsoever your heart desireth.” Compare this with the record of the preaching of Nehor: