diff --git a/src/Guzzle/Http/Message/Response.php b/src/Guzzle/Http/Message/Response.php
index 8c940234..30668263 100644
--- a/src/Guzzle/Http/Message/Response.php
+++ b/src/Guzzle/Http/Message/Response.php
@@ -911,7 +911,7 @@ class Response extends AbstractMessage
     /**
      * Parse the JSON response body and return an array
      *
-     * @return array
+     * @return array|string|int|bool|float
      * @throws RuntimeException if the response body is not in JSON format
      */
     public function json()
@@ -921,7 +921,7 @@ class Response extends AbstractMessage
             throw new RuntimeException('Unable to parse response body into JSON: ' . json_last_error());
         }
 
-        return $data ?: array();
+        return $data === null ? array() : $data;
     }
 
     /**
diff --git a/tests/Guzzle/Tests/Http/Message/ResponseTest.php b/tests/Guzzle/Tests/Http/Message/ResponseTest.php
index c0bd4852..9d108f79 100644
--- a/tests/Guzzle/Tests/Http/Message/ResponseTest.php
+++ b/tests/Guzzle/Tests/Http/Message/ResponseTest.php
@@ -832,7 +832,7 @@ class ResponseTest extends \Guzzle\Tests\GuzzleTestCase
     {
         $response = new Response(200, array(), '{"foo": "bar"}');
         $this->assertEquals(array('foo' => 'bar'), $response->json());
-        // Always return an array from the json method
+        // Return array when null is a service response
         $response = new Response(200);
         $this->assertEquals(array(), $response->json());
     }