In some cases the checkbox may be selected by default. If you want to restore default selection rather than set as unselected, compare the defaultChecked property.
You can be selective of what div or part of your page can have checkboxes checked and which don't. I came across the scenario where I have two forms in my page and one have prefilled values(for update) and other need to be filled fresh.
seems that .attr and .removeAttr doesn't work for some situations.
edit: Note that in jQuery v1.6 and higher, you should be using .prop('checked', false) instead for greater cross-browser compatibility - see https://api.jquery.com/prop