diff --git a/browser/components/preferences/tabs.xul b/browser/components/preferences/tabs.xul
index 964ab9e547e7..61c3589d08f3 100644
--- a/browser/components/preferences/tabs.xul
+++ b/browser/components/preferences/tabs.xul
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@
       <preference id="browser.link.open_external"      name="browser.link.open_external"      type="int"/>
       <preference id="browser.link.open_newwindow"     name="browser.link.open_newwindow"     type="int"/>
       <preference id="browser.tabs.autoHide"           name="browser.tabs.autoHide"           type="bool"/>
-      <preference id="browser.tabs.loadInBackground"   name="browser.tabs.loadInBackground"   type="bool"/>
+      <preference id="browser.tabs.loadInBackground"   name="browser.tabs.loadInBackground"   type="bool" inverted="true"/>
       <preference id="browser.tabs.warnOnClose"        name="browser.tabs.warnOnClose"        type="bool"/>
     </preferences>
     
@@ -81,7 +81,7 @@
       <checkbox id="hideTabBar" label="&hideTabBar.label;"
                 preference="browser.tabs.autoHide"/>
       <checkbox id="loadInBackground" label="&loadInBackground.label;"
-                preference="browser.tabs.loadInBackground" reversed="true"/>
+                preference="browser.tabs.loadInBackground"/>
       <checkbox id="warnOnClose" label="&warnOnClose.label;"
                 preference="browser.tabs.warnOnClose"/>
     </vbox>
diff --git a/toolkit/content/widgets/preferences.xml b/toolkit/content/widgets/preferences.xml
index d5fb796882e1..0769e8790239 100644
--- a/toolkit/content/widgets/preferences.xml
+++ b/toolkit/content/widgets/preferences.xml
@@ -213,7 +213,8 @@
             case "int":
               return this._branch.getIntPref(this.name);
             case "bool":
-              return this._branch.getBoolPref(this.name);
+              var val = this._branch.getBoolPref(this.name);
+              return this.inverted ? !val : val;
             case "string":
               return this._branch.getCharPref(this.name);
             case "wstring":