> It also seems to work on nervous small dogs.

I've had multiple cats over many years (childhood pet, and a couple of cats as an adult) and like other cat owners, learned the slow blink technique naturally long before this paper was written.

Now I volunteer as a dog handler for a local rescue and interact with quite a few dogs (many of them with various forms of ptsd as they were all strays at one point) and after a lot of testing I'm also fairly certain that dogs interpret the slow-blink similarly to cats (basically as a signal that you mean them no harm, despite clearly being a predator because your eyes are front-facing), they are just much less likely to return it the way a cat will once it trusts you.

But I've seen lots of anecdotal personal evidence that it does also act like a calming and trust signal for dogs.

Staring at another, and sustained direct eye contact in particular, is a sign of aggression or distrust in many animals including humans. This is one of the reasons cats often seem to gravitate towards people who are allergic or dislike cats – their body language unintentionally communicates "I’m friendly and not a threat".

My mum calls them cat kisses, and we do it with other cats too, lol!

slow blink?, didnt hear this one before!

try locking eyes and NOT blinking, you will need to channel every last bit of malevolent evil you got, but the hissy fit is worth it!

or in exceptionaly high stress situations looking AT the cat(wild, ferral,10lb tom trapped in the porch), but not focusing on it's eyes, untill it tucks its head, step OVER it and open the outside door, and it bolts so fast it leaves a cartoon puff of hair.

the search for intelligent life in the universe should be looking around, not up.