The election of the ‘Landtag von Nordrhein-Westfalen’ in 1975 was one of the infrequent occasions of being able to examine the resolution of cognitive inconsistencies in a natural-occurring event: Voters who expect their own party to lose will experience cognitive dissonance. There was significant confirmation for the hypothesis that inconsistency between the party to be voted and the party expected to win (i.e. the person will vote for a loser) leads to a stronger devaluation of the political relevance of the election than consistency. This finding can be explained by the theory of cognitive dissonance.