 <blockquote> <p>i dont understand why, adding an element on the list also fires a list selection.</p> </blockquote> <p>Somewhere in your code you must be changing the selected index.</p> <p>Download and test the ListDemo example for <a href="http://download.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/uiswing/components/list.html" rel="nofollow">How to Use Lists</a>. When you run the code and "Hire" a person, then the list selection event fires (I added a System.out.println(...) to the listener). Then if you comment out:</p> <pre><code>// list.setSelectedIndex(index); </code></pre> <p>the event is not fired. So you have a problem in your code. Compare your code to the working example code to see what if different.</p> <p>If you need more help then post a <a href="http://sscce.org" rel="nofollow">SSCCE</a> that demonstrates the problem.</p>