Retrieve boolean data from data attribute in jquery

The jQuery .data() method is smart about recognizing boolean and numeric values and converts them into their native type. So this returns the boolean true, not "true":

$('#test').data('return');

If you want to get the raw data (without the automatic data conversion), you can use .attr():

$('#test').attr("data-return");

See the working test case here: http://jsfiddle.net/jfriend00/6BA8t/