So like, many of these 'social rules' illustrated seem pretty rationally based. And thus to break them is to be seen as irrational (or antisocial).

We don's spit on people, for instance. Maybe if we're fremen on Arrakis, spitting on someone is a socially acceptable norm, but not here on earth.

So... he's being a troll?

The social norm of holding the door open and not getting in peoples' way fulfills the conditions of maximum overall utility; the delay caused by holding the door should be less than the delay of opening it for the next person, while getting in the way simply creates an easily avoidable delay.

Eye movements are indications of attention; one is expected to be attending to whatever one is looking at. Paying that much attention to someone while also ignoring them isn't just norm breaking, it's reasonably threatening.

I appreciate the bit about norms, but what makes him "crazy"?  Does he identify himself as such?

It might be interesting to explore how different "norms" are experienced by different people.  As a queer woman, here are thoughts on the three norms given above:

1. I've been socialized not to rock the boat, so I feel pressure to race over the door even if it's a nuisance.  More importantly, I am now hyperaware of gender - because I assume that a man ostentatiously holding a door for me (if I'm not on crutches or carrying a giant box) is doing it out of gendered "chivalry". This reminds me that as a butch queer woman I am unattractive to straight dudes and often encounter resentment, hostility and ostentatious "gendering" (ie, some dude stares at my breasts really obviously or calls me "honey" in a sarcastic way to remind me that I may "think I'm a man" or think I don't have to look fuckable, but I'm still subject to his gaze).   In general, when a man holds a door for me unnecessarily (when we're both physically capable and fairly young, when I'm not carrying anything, when I am not so close to the door that to fail to hold it would mean to let is slam in my face), I get stressed and upset because I have to stop thinking of myself as "person walking around" and have to start thinking of myself as "person performing femininity and being evaluated by men". 

I would argue that this is very different from how a man, a person in a wheelchair, a trans person, etc etc etc, would experience these "norms". The norms are shared, but everyone feels differently about the behavior that the norms generate.

2. To continue, as a butch queer woman, I have been shoved and body-checked by men at random on the sidewalk - or rather "off the sidewalk" - sometimes when there is a group of men taking up the whole sidewalk who do not want to share the sidewalk and sometimes out of what I assume is pure hostility.  A man walking close to me and getting in the way makes me nervous because it can be the prelude to an unpleasant, homophobic encounter.

3. And of course, being stared at is experienced in different ways depending on who you are, even though it's always weird and uncomfortable.

I do that all the time. I didn't realize I was a deviant.

I conducted my own experiments like this, year ago, when I lived in Chicago.  

The most interesting one involved me refusing to look away first whenever I made random eye contact with a male stranger in public.  The "norm" is that as a woman, I should always look away first. 

The reaction I got depended greatly upon age and race.  White men, especially if they were obviously younger than me, would become visibly nervous and look away first.  Older white men would attempt to maintain the gaze a bit longer, but would usually relent and look away with some apparent discomfort.  Black men, (unless they were teenagers or younger) seemed to perceive my unwillingness to look away first as some type of nonverbal challenge, or even as a sexual advance!  

In case you're curious... women, regardless of age or race, would always look away first with little or no hesitation. 

I didn't get the opportunity to test this on people of other races beyond black and caucasian.

Reminds me of Mormon humor. Polite, inoffensive, fun for all ages. Not particularly insightful. I'm learning more from the comments. 

I guess I thought the norm breaking in the video was that he was holding the door for people who were REALLY far away. What kind of people are you if you slam doors in people's faces if they're right behind you (people of either sex, btw)? But this guy was just holding doors for anyone, especially those that still had quite a distance to travel. And that is what made it awkward and uncomfortable, not that he was holding the door.

This feels like one of the "Well, D'uh!" posts that I don't really like. What is this experiment supposed to tell us? Of course people react irritated when you are irritating. Most of these videos seem like autistic or even psychopathic behavior, so it's easy to imagine how people would react.

I had a similar assignment in class, and I chose to trim my toenails in the dining area in my college and while I was watching a musical performed by the college students.

I actually got into the habit of holding the door for people that are too far away when I was in college and most of the doors were locked, where it was considered a faux pas to close a door behind you when you clearly could have seen that someone was coming.  Now I can't break the habit...

Re: the stare - It's my understanding that the gaze contains power (Mulvey worked with this idea extensively...), and that those who see are considered more powerful than those merely seen.  So in this culture where power so often exists in the form of an abusive relationship, it's no surprise to me that people become so anxious when this particular norm is transgressed...

I think a better discussion would not be people's reactions to deviant behavior, but WHY these behaviors are deviant.  People like to chalk things like this up to "people just hate it when other people are nice" or "people overreact to the littlest things like being looked at," but that completely separates the "deviant" behavior from the context it's usually present in when these behaviors come up naturally as opposed to someone doing an experiment.  As for being stared at, people usually "stare"  (not just look or glance, but stare) for one of 3 reasons: your appearance somehow offends them, they're checking you out, or they're trying to take a peek at whatever you're doing.  ALL of those are invasive, uncomfortable feelings.  I don't want someone sitting there making me feel like an outcast for whatever I'd done to "look wrong," I don't want some creep ogling me, and I don't want anyone looking over my shoulder at my phone/computer/book/whatever.  As for "getting in my way" that bothers and annoys me because obviously, I've got someplace to be.  If I'm going to work or class or to meet someone, I don't like being impeded.  I'm sure the woman with the double stroller would be even more irritated, because she has to navigate an SUV sized barge with toddlers in it around who she perceives as some doof who isn't paying attention.  Having someone walk so close that you'd need to move off the sidewalk is just rude.  Intentional or not, it screams "I'm more important and more worthy of this sidewalk than you are!"  Holding the door is a little more hard to pin down, because it could just as easily be someone who misjudged distance.  But, how often do you go online and see self-proclaimed nice guys acting like they deserve fanfare for simply not slamming a door in a woman's face, and blaming feminism for some completely fabricated story where a women screamed at him for being polite.  Guys who hold doors for me at inappropriate times just as often as not do it in a dramatic way, with an ear to ear grin and maybe even a flourish ("after YOU, milady!").  It reads not as "look, I have enough social awareness not to be rude to you," but as "look at ME, I am not like those OTHER guys who disrespect woman and forgot chivalry!  I hold DOORS and treat women like the delicate flowers on pedestals that they are!  Where is my trophy?"  Again, it is just as often someone goofing up and misjudging distance, but when it is often enough beyond simple manners, but showing off, it's suspicious. 

Norms are sometimes completely fabricated, but just because something is a norm and sometimes norms are silly or oppressive doesn't mean norms in and of themselves are silly or oppressive.  They should be questioned, but I don't know that this guy is questioning the right norms.  He just seems like he's harassing people because it's funny to make them uncomfortable, without really considering WHY they're uncomfortable.

What we can't tell from the videos is how much people are made uncomfortable by the fact that norms are being broken, and how much these norms come about because there are other reasons that the norm-breaking behaviours make people uncomfortable.