Intimidation

Intimidation is a perk in Fallout 4.

Effects
To use this perk, you must aim a ranged weapon at a human enemy and press your interact button (X on PS4, A on XBOX). This perk is NOT guaranteed to work, even on enemies with a significantly lower level than yours. Once an attempt is made, another is possible after waiting a short amount of time. If successful, the target will raise their arms and surrender and become a friendly according to your HUD; however, it seems like after waiting a span of several minutes some pacified targets can become hostile again.

Once intimidated, the individual appears to lose their faction allegiance, but will still react to crimes committed against them. For example, an intimidated enemy will not attack if their allies are wounded/killed, or if loose objects are looted. However if you damage them or are caught pick pocketing from their inventory, they will attempt to attack you. Note that damaging/killing one intimidated enemy will have no effects on other intimidated enemies, only that specific individual

This perk can be used on non hostile NPCs, however it is counted as an assault on them, so if it fails or if someone detects you during the act, they will become hostile and attack you.