The Like Switch

Jack Schafer spent 20 years as a Special Agent in the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Program, recruiting foreign spies and turning hostile strangers into cooperating sources. The Like Switch distills the techniques into a friend-making playbook for civilians. Schafer covers the friendship formula (proximity, frequency, duration, intensity), the three nonverbal friend signals (eyebrow flash, head tilt, smile), the empathic statement, the golden rule of friendship, and the ways verbal and digital communication build or break rapport. The book includes case studies from Schafer's counterintelligence career and exercises that translate the tactics into everyday conversations, workplace dynamics, and online interactions.