I'm in the process of trying to unpack the process of making friends, which is kind of mysterious to me. My old implicit model was:

I like someone -> We (sometimes) become friends

Of course my feelings don't directly cause anything but my actions. The simple insight that I was attributing a consequence to something that could only cause it indirectly, gave me the opportunity to notice some of the mediating causes, and fine-tune them separately:

I like someone -> I behave pleasantly toward them -> Increase P(Friendship)

I like someone -> I invite them to things or accept their invitations -> Increase P(Friendship)

I like someone -> I ask them questions about things that interest them -> Increase P(Friendship)

Now if I want to be better friends with someone, instead of just uselessly liking them more, I can do things like strike up more conversations, or invite them to hang out. There's lots of stuff I'm missing, but finding mediating causes is a powerful tool.