When a real "click" happens on an element, the "click" handler for the element will see the updated value of the "checked" flag. That is, if you click on an unchecked checkbox, the click handler will see the "checked" flag set to true. However, if you trigger "click" on an unchecked checkbox via jQuery, the "click" handler will see the "checked" flag set to false! That's a really bad thing, in my opinion

also see: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10268222/jquery-checking-a-checkbox-and-triggering-javascript-onclick-event