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TS: There we have it^, the tl;dr summary.
Again, which came first? The chicken or the egg?
Glass half full, glass half empty.

Optimist vs Pessimist.
It doesnt freaking matter. You can tell people that attraction can be "built" by following those five steps if it makes you happy. This is simply not reality as I perceive it.

Steps 1-5 are valid though...and there is no harm trying to show your best to the person you're interested in.

If a girl doesnt find you attractive, no matter how well you do steps 1-5, she will still only see you as a friend. If you push too hard, she will be creeped and avoid you! Put yourself in the girl's shoes. What if a really ugly girl starts showing romantic interest in you? What would you do? She's a goody 2 shoes who is an angel and makes you laugh. She is interesting. She communicates well with you. She is culturally compatible with you... but she is so very dead ugly that you couldnt EVER imagine seeing her naked. What would you do? All the "nice" female characteristics... personality, compatibility, etc... simply dont matter... There is no mutual attraction.

Also note that it is very hard to have confidence, to be interesting and to be empathetic if you proverbially "DONT HAVE A LIFE" (the topic my latest thread addresses).

You could tell very early on if a person is interested in you or not pretty much by the way they look and interact with you. Things are mutual... and in my opinion, just to progress beyond step #1 requires mutual attraction
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That's why I keep on stressing that guys should only pursue girls they detect interest from (i am assuming that guys would only pursue girls they are interested in of course). It should be obvious as the light of day when a girl is interested in you. Once you detect interest...then proceed with step's 1-5 as TS is suggesting.

How well you proceed through each of those steps depends on the characteristics you correctly outlined above: confidence / empathy ("attention") / social skills ("make her laugh") etc.

Sexual kicks. I have a LYN:CC keyboard fetish...

ooh... yeah, typing makes me hot....