This is wierd

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I started university a couple of weeks ago. Getting from lecture to lecture obviously involves a lot of walking in places where there are lots of people. For the first week or so of university, I deliberately tried to 'project confidence' when walking, but people (especially other guys) would target me and make stupid comments. Girls (and only girls) would laugh when I went past, which was odd. I ignored them all. By the way, these are complete strangers I'm talking about -- never spoken a word to them but obviously they know me by sight.

Then when I stopped trying so hard to look confident, everyone took less notice of me and the smart-alec comments stopped. I'm guessing this has got something to do with NTs being able to detect when you're putting some amount of effort into something.

How were you trying to project confidence when walking? Maybe you were overdoing it or something?

Some people with ASD walk "different" and they may not even be aware of it. I've been told by my mother that I walk different too although I have no idea what the difference really is. Perhaps this could be the case for you when you try to project confidence while walking.

I can't help but get the image in my mind of you "powerwalking" and totally overdoing it. I've seen people do that before and I'll admit, it does give me a good chuckle. The best way to walk is just whatever feels natural to you...trying to force something will come across as forced and awkward. If you want to project confidence, my recommendation would be simply to hold your head up and look straight, rather than at the ground, and swing your arms slightly when you walk.

Thank you for your clarifications. I guess I might have been powerwalking/overdoing it. I naturally walk quickly, so that might have made it worse. From now on I walk in a way that feels more natural to me -- obviously "fake it 'till you make it" does not apply to looking confident in front of crowds of strangers.

You obviously over-exaggerated (the opposite of confidence) if it was enough to make people notice and even laugh..

They must have seen the incongruence between my calm facial expression and the fear in my eyes.