I believe the tone-deafness is because she answered "Yes". She knew what they were. The interviewee then laughed and lectured her on something she said she knew about. That's being tone deaf. There's nothing wrong with asking the question, except the question wasn't genuine. It was merely tossed out as an intro into what the individual wanted to talk about... which was themselves (and in doing so also insulted the intelligence and knowledge of the person they were talking to).
From my own experience around this sort of conversation, it doesn't seem like malice to me.
I'm a male and I've given this response before when someone asked me "have you read about X?" In turn, they gave a brief background because they weren't aware of the full scope of my knowledge on the subject.
If instead I had said: "Yes, I've worked on many projects involving X and I wrote a dissertation on it," then there would be no need for explanation.
It seems more like inexperience with the other gender and conflating assumptions in the workplace.
> Why would you laugh at the response unless you don't believe someone?
It's a way to try and break the awkwardness of just a one-word answer. We can't tell the tone this man had, or how the author perceived that tone, just from the writing, but I like to use Hanlon's razor liberally.
I think it's a moot point using only one datum, especially one as subjective as experience, in argument though.
