The evaluation of price expectations in consumer sentiment surveys is rather ambiguous. Time series in price expectations and time to buy from our continuous research in this field show that as long as prices can go up and can come down, people will try to beat higher prices of the future by buying now, and wait for lower prices in the future by postponing expenditure. Price expectations, generally speaking, can be different from price expectations of cars, houses, durables. Time to buy a house is compared with sales of houses in the late 70's. Trends, on new car sales in Holland, are related to time to buy a car in 1979 - 1982.
Osgoods holds that concepts, situated in space, can be defined by means of three dimensions - evaluation, potency and activity. He determines this geometrical construction by applying factor analysis to the results that he obtains with his fifty semantic differentials. The increasing use of computers has had the result that his method is at the moment undergoing a revival.
During the last 12 months, there has been a flood of information about the European Free Trade Area. Lectures, meetings, discussions, articles and brochures have come in abundance. We have been told that it is important, inevitable, dangerous, attractive, critical, unwise, invaluable, almost upon us and too far off to cause such a commotion. Finally, our own Prime Minister has told us, in a speech in July, that many of us do not have the will to export. Therefore, many British business men are still confused about the prospects.