I have a regular input box (no onchange attribute). <input type="text" id="bar" name="bar" /> For some reason, IE6+ does returns [object], while FF and Chrome returns null. if ((elem.getAttributeNode('onchange')) != null) elem.onchange(); I did also try as: if (typeof(elem.onchange) !== 'undefined') elem.onchange(); What would be the proper cross-browser way to check if the element has the attribute? Thanks