event.preventDefault() vs. return false When I want to prevent other event handlers from executing after a certain event is fired, I can use one of two techniques. I'll use jQuery in the examples, but this applies to plain-JS as well: 1. event.preventDefault() $('a').click(function (e) { // custom handling here e.preventDefault(); }); 2. return false $('a').click(function () { // custom handling here return false; }); Is there any significant difference between those two methods of stopping event propagation? For me, return false; is simpler, shorter and probably less