Adjective to describe people being over cautious to be polite or considerate
Looking for an adjective or noun to describe people being over cautious to be polite or considerate to others, and often expecting or causing others to respond or act in a similar way.
For example,
- Holding door for people behind while the other is still meters away.
- While walking on the road, constantly check behind and pose to give way to others while people behind have no intention to overtake but stressed to do so due to the pose.
Edit
Normally these people see themselves very positively. They believe they are behaving at a higher social moral standard than others, and expect others to behave accordingly too.
The word I'm looking for should be:
- Negative, as the behavior is not very pleasing.
- Reveal the undesired expectation imposed on others to behave equally polite, considerate or even "elegant".
Obsequious fits very well your requirement 1:
Obedient or attentive to an excessive or servile degree: ‘they were served by obsequious waiters (Oxford dict)
You can also consider sycophantic:
Behaving or done in an obsequious way in order to gain advantage: ‘a sycophantic interview' (Oxford dict)
But both describe people looking for an advantage out of servility, rather than someone expecting the same level of over-politeness from others. Then I would rather go for unctuous:
Excessively flattering or ingratiating; oily: ‘he seemed anxious to please but not in an unctuous way'
ostentatious Though probably use as 'ostentatiously polite'