Why do some people respond to another's obvious distress with laughter?

18 Comments

I just don't get this behaviour. In the last week or so when I've been upset to lesser and greater degrees because of ongoing crises in my life, a total of five people have laughed at me.

The first two were from a Red Cross service who call me every morning to check I'm still alive, then a close friend, then an acquaintance and then a complete stranger in the post office.

I am 73 years old and I cannot remember even one occasion in my life when I've laughed at someone who was upset, not even people I didn't like or actively disliked.

I don't believe any of these people laughed deliberately to increase my distress, but that's the effect it had on me.

Does anyone out there do this too and if so WHY????? Has anyone else experienced it and how did you deal with it?

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Comments ( 18 )
  • ellnell
    4 years ago

    I have social anxiety and I tend to laugh a lot. It's like a nervous tick. In school when I was much younger I was both quiet and didn't smile or laugh a lot so people thought I was rude when it was just anxiety, so it caused me to always make an effort to look happy with other people and to laugh a lot to not seem so serious... Now I can't stop it... At least most people don't think i'm rude anymore...

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  • libertybell
    4 years ago

    Don't laugh at people. It's rude. There's no excuse.

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  • d0esnormalmatter
    4 years ago

    Prolly cause its funny

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    • Ellenna
      4 years ago

      How can someone's distress be funny except to psychopath?

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      • d0esnormalmatter
        4 years ago

        If their distress came about in a funny way. It's happened to me before.

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        • Ellenna
          4 years ago

          What, laughing at distressed people or being laughed at when you've been distressed?

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          • d0esnormalmatter
            4 years ago

            Been laughed at in distress. Hated it at the time but looking back I can't really blame them.

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  • my_life_my_way
    4 years ago

    I do this, partially because I never really learned how to respond in situations where I’m supposed to express sympathy/compassion and partially (or mostly) out of schadenfreude. That’s the just the way I am.

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    • Ellenna
      4 years ago

      "That's just the way I am"? What a lazy and selfish copout. If you wanted to you could learn to be empathetic and supportive, all it takes is putting yourself in the other person's situation and considering what your needs would be. It's not rocket science.

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      • my_life_my_way
        4 years ago

        I don’t want to be empathetic and supportive though

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  • Wellyoudliketoknoweh
    4 years ago

    Sometimes people don’t get a certain situation and it’s feeling
    Most humans can only connect an emotion with something they’ve been through, meaning they can’t really put themselves in another ones skin
    Just...there are a lot of reasons. Sometimes it’s even funny to see others fail for some, or like I said people just can’t connect with it. Either when they’re not very empathetic or hurt themselves they’ll just backfire against everything that is in their nature

    Imagine a child being angry about something stupid and the adult actually makes fun of it. Kinda reminds me of that

    When you’re nervous and don’t know what to do
    Sometimes laughing hides things, like a few on here wrote already, like anxiety and such. Or like fear, you can hide a lot with a laugh

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  • controversy
    4 years ago

    lol. this makes me the sixth.

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    • Ellenna
      4 years ago

      Sixth what?

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  • MissWolf
    4 years ago

    I laugh when I'm nervous a lot of the time.

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  • litelander8
    4 years ago

    I sometimes laugh at terrible things. I don't know why and I can't help it.

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    • Ellenna
      4 years ago

      You could help it if you wanted to

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      • litelander8
        4 years ago

        Whatever you say.

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  • --
    4 years ago

    IDK but its so funny and feels so good.

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