I think "confidence" is definitely a necessary trait to amplify and add to attractiveness, but my point is more so that if there isn't something already attractive (doesn't have to be physical, could be personality related) about someone, no amount of confidence is going to help them. If you are attractive (not just physically, you could be humorous and/or talented) and don't have confidence, then sure, confidence is the thing you need, but if you aren't attractive, the thing you might need to work on first is being attractive (physically, developing talents, humor, or a good social vibe), which I guess would naturally boost your confidence.

To illustrate what I am talking about, let's imagine a situation with ping pong tables. A person with confidence will be able to go up to someone and ask to play with no issues or awkwardness. However, if they play badly and lose really badly, most people still won't think of that person particularly highly. Similarly, I feel like if you're not attractive in some way (again, not just looks-wise), confidence in itself isn't going to help you significantly. It will help you talk to more people, but it does nothing to improve your odds of success (it just increases the sample size, but the probability of success remains the same).If your odds of success (however you define it) are 1/10, and you normally speak to 10 people, then theoretically confidence may lead you to increase that number to 100 people. Sure, you have 10 situations of success instead of 1, but you can't always rely on numbers, because dating isn't the only thing in your life. Therefore, the optimal strategy is to increase your odds of success to 4/10 or whatever.

I might be completely wrong here, but I want to know your thoughts? Is confidence inherently attractive, or does it only serve to amplify already-existing attractive traits?