Does a lack of self confidence really make someone unattractive?

I'm not going to lie, I struggle with my self confidence and have since I was a teenager. Though I've gotten much better, it's still an uphill battle and I definitely have my highs and lows (and the lows can get really low).

Anyway, I've always thought that my family has lied to me about how attractive I am, because I have definitely never been treated like I'm attractive and in fact, usually get treated like the opposite. I've brought this up and the excuse is that I have no self confidence and it shows, and this is why I don't get seen or treated as attractive. This just doesn't pass the sniff test to me. Is there really any truth to this, or is it likely my family really is lying to me?

Apparently another thing is that I'm "elusive". It's true that I don't really like the idea of getting close with anyone and like to keep my distance. I still don't see how this would affect how many people notice me or how they treat me upon meeting me for the first time (as friends or in a professional setting; I don't date).

It doesn't really matter anyway since I'm not actually trying to attract anyone, but I don't want to get buffaloed by well-intentioned people who love me into accidentally thinking I'm better in any way than I really am. I feel like that would be a bigger blow than having low self confidence.

Philth · 46-50, M

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
At school I was mocked for not finding any of the then popular idols attractive, instead I tended to be drawn to the geeky types.
Confidence is an interesting one : I'm more likely to be turned off by overconfidence (which is often a bluff, in any case) than underconfidence.
If you don't have some element of self doubt, then in my eyes you're not human, because only certain types of people never question themselves, and those types are best avoided.