His description makes it seem like a tool for ill, but I've found it to be very useful for positive effects as well. I work in emergency services (Fire/EMS), a

His description makes it seem like a tool for ill, but I've found it to be very useful for positive effects as well. I work in emergency services (Fire/EMS), and eye contact is an amazingly effective way to calm someone down. Make eye contact, slow your own breathing down, speak calmly and firmly. I've seen very few panicky people who were "immune" to this. Like the article describes, making solid eye contact seems to break someone out of the moment and get them to focus on you. What you do after that is what determines how "hostile" you're being.