Why do they laugh?

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People do that to me all of the time. Sometimes I think they do it just to be mean-spirited because they know I'm socially challenged.

People laugh for different reasons. They laugh to make fun of someone, when they think something is funny, when they are embarrassed, someone has said something mean or innaproppiate, when they think something is cute. It makes it all confusing I don't know why people are laughing because of more than one reason why they laugh.

I don't know.

Maybe she thought you were intentionally being rude to her and laughed at you to be rude back.

Maybe she thought you were intentionally being funny.

Maybe she was confused and laughed as a stress reliever.

Maybe she is a nasty person and thought what she would perceive as your plight (that of an "abnormal" person) was funny.

I guess there are any number of reasons she could have laughed.

Did it make you at all uncomfortable that she laughed at you?

I laugh alot, but that's because I'm insane.

Only as far as confusion goes (see: I didn't know why), and it brought up memories of how a few past events have gone a long time ago (high school), where I knew for a fact I was being laughed at in a derisive manner.

Oddly, now that I think about it, I'm not sure the last time someone laughed derisively at me.

I sure as hell was laughed at derisively a lot when I was younger, but being laughed at was pretty inconsequential compared to other things.

What was the laughter like? E.g., was it very overt or more like chuckling?

When I'm laughed at, it's in a way that suggests I'm not a person to be taken seriously, like how people laugh/chuckle at children sometimes.

Perhaps she was a little embarrassed because you didn't react in the way she was expecting. Some people laugh when they're embarrassed to cover it up.

It really doesn't sound to me like the laughter was intended as ridicule. To many NTs, your reaction was probably so unexpected that they had no idea how to interpret it. Most people would probably feel very confused and a little insulted. Few would laugh out of ridicule at that particular moment.

People sometimes use smiles or laughter as a "social interaction repair strategy". Basically, if someone greets you and you don't respond in the way they expect, they may laugh as a way of saying something like "It's ok that you didn't respond. I'm not offended. Isn't this a funny situation -- you were thinking about something and didn't hear me?!?!?!?". The person may be hoping that you simply didn't hear them and that the laughter will serve as a cue that will lead you to smile and laugh also.

I think of that kind of laughter as an odd combination of a nervous response and a "social interaction repair strategy". I've found that the use of a smile or laughter as a social interaction repair strategy is particularly common in some asian cultures.

They laughed at how much of an awkward weirdo you were. It used to happen to me sometimes back when I was worse.