sincerity

Saudi Arabia expresses fears from Iran that are in some cases genuine and in other cases insincere. To see whether or not Saudis are sincere in their fear expressions from Iran, an analytical tool is developed in this paper linking securitization theory to theories of truth-verification. Analyzing Mohammad bin Salman’s interview about Iran with Jeffrey Goldberg from the Atlantic using the indicators extracted from context-oriented theories of deception-detection, this paper demonstrated that the assertions the Saudi Crown Prince made about Iran reflect both true apprehensions and unfounded misrepresentations, with the balance in favor of the latter. This study demonstrated that context-oriented truth verification theories of social sciences are useful in foreign policy studies to distinguish states’ securitizing moves from their sincere fear expressions. The methodology of this article is based on a descriptive-explanatory approach that seeks to shed light on how Saudi leaders try to securitize Iran's identity in the region.

Prosody is a fundamental aspect of speech communication through which (un)truthfulness and (in)sincerity of speech can be identified. The focus of the study is on the prosodic features of (in)sincere compliments among EFL learners. Twenty male and female EFL learners were selected through Oxford Quick Placement Test. The participants did role-plays based on situations on compliment topics and their voices were recorded in a recording studio. The produced compliments were transferred to Praat software for acoustic analysis. Also, two native speakers (one male and one female) were requested to read the produced compliments both in a sincere and insincere manner. Their voices were transferred to Praat software for acoustic analysis to establish the baseline of the study. The prosodic features of the participants’ voices were compared with those of native speakers to determine the (in)sincerity of the compliments on a 5-point scale. Results showed that sincere compliments are produced with a higher pitch. Concerning the gender of the participants, males were sincerer than females. Regarding the proficiency level of the participants, there was no significant prosodic feature in determining the sincerity of their compliments. Both intermediate and advanced groups were similar to native speakers in giving sincere compliments. The results of the study open up new horizons for the importance of vocal cues in evaluating sincerity in speech acts.

Studies on securitization theory have neglected the fact that securitization is in place only when it is proven that expression of fear is insincere. A number of indicators can be retrieved from the literature on deception detection in social sciences to verify sincerity in fear expressions by political leaders. Application of these indicators in this paper demonstrates that former Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu’s expression of fear from Iran in his speech at the United Nations General Assembly in 2014, was more a case of constructing an existential threat, than expressing genuine apprehensions. A complete examination of Netanyahu’s claims about Iran establishes their contradiction with the known realities. The inconsistency between truth and Netanyahu’s goals, the knowledge available about Netanyahu’s negative beliefs about Iran,  the implausibility of some of his assertions, their judgmental nature, as well as the disclosure of their incorrectness over time all support the idea that Netanyahu was insincere in his expression of fear from Iran in this particular case, and that he was constructing an existential threat about Iran in the midst of negotiations to reach a nuclear deal with Iran, which he vehemently opposed.