diff --git a/lib/puppet.rb b/lib/puppet.rb
index 484fda4c4ef..d8a0ec00114 100644
--- a/lib/puppet.rb
+++ b/lib/puppet.rb
@@ -237,7 +237,7 @@ def self.base_context(settings)
       :ssl_context => proc { Puppet.runtime[:http].default_ssl_context },
       :http_session => proc { Puppet.runtime[:http].create_session },
       :plugins => proc { Puppet::Plugins::Configuration.load_plugins },
-      :rich_data => false
+      :rich_data => Puppet[:rich_data]
     }
   end
 
diff --git a/lib/puppet/application/resource.rb b/lib/puppet/application/resource.rb
index 0c39a6c1aae..8a7d97bcbe3 100644
--- a/lib/puppet/application/resource.rb
+++ b/lib/puppet/application/resource.rb
@@ -155,7 +155,9 @@ def main
 
       if options[:to_yaml]
         data = resources.map do |resource|
-          resource.prune_parameters(:parameters_to_include => @extra_params).to_hiera_hash
+          Puppet.override(rich_data: false) do
+            resource.prune_parameters(:parameters_to_include => @extra_params).to_hiera_hash
+          end
         end.inject(:merge!)
         text = YAML.dump(type.downcase => data)
       else
diff --git a/spec/integration/application/apply_spec.rb b/spec/integration/application/apply_spec.rb
index 9f159dbec70..adea37ed406 100644
--- a/spec/integration/application/apply_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/integration/application/apply_spec.rb
@@ -447,6 +447,12 @@ def bogus()
         Puppet[:strict] = :warning
       end
 
+      around :each do |test|
+        Puppet.override(rich_data: false) do
+          test.run
+        end
+      end
+
       it 'will notify a string that is the result of Regexp#inspect (from Runtime3xConverter)' do
         catalog = compile_to_catalog(execute, node)
         apply.command_line.args = ['--catalog', file_containing('manifest', catalog.to_json)]
diff --git a/spec/unit/application/resource_spec.rb b/spec/unit/application/resource_spec.rb
index 901fb4a9bb0..ecc82f60075 100644
--- a/spec/unit/application/resource_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/unit/application/resource_spec.rb
@@ -170,11 +170,13 @@ def string
       expect { @resource_app.main }.not_to raise_error
     end
 
-    it "should raise an error when printing yaml by default" do
+    it "should raise an error when printing yaml if rich_data is off" do
       @resource_app.options[:to_yaml] = true
       allow(@resource_app.command_line).to receive(:args).and_return(['stringify', 'hello', 'ensure=present', 'string=asd'])
-      expect { @resource_app.main }.to raise_error( Puppet::PreformattedError,
-        /Stringify\[hello\]\['string'\] contains a Puppet::Util::Execution::ProcessOutput value. It will be converted to the String 'test'/)
+      Puppet.override(rich_data: false) do
+        expect { @resource_app.main }.to raise_error( Puppet::PreformattedError,
+          /Stringify\[hello\]\['string'\] contains a Puppet::Util::Execution::ProcessOutput value. It will be converted to the String 'test'/)
+      end
     end
 
     it "should ensure all values to be printed are in the external encoding" do
diff --git a/spec/unit/resource/catalog_spec.rb b/spec/unit/resource/catalog_spec.rb
index 9c462f72d25..7abca7e7b58 100644
--- a/spec/unit/resource/catalog_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/unit/resource/catalog_spec.rb
@@ -965,10 +965,15 @@ class {'multi_param_class':
 
     context 'and rich_data is disabled' do
       before(:each) do
-        Puppet[:rich_data] = false 
         Puppet[:strict] = :warning # do not want to stub out behavior in tests
       end
 
+      around(:each) do |test|
+        Puppet.override(rich_data: false) do
+          test.run
+        end
+      end
+
       let(:catalog_w_regexp)  { compile_to_catalog("notify {'foo': message => /[a-z]+/ }") }
 
       it 'should not generate rich value hash for parameter values that are not Data' do
diff --git a/spec/unit/resource_spec.rb b/spec/unit/resource_spec.rb
index c527358e3f6..28d634991a3 100644
--- a/spec/unit/resource_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/unit/resource_spec.rb
@@ -906,6 +906,26 @@ def inject_and_set_defaults(resource, scope)
     # Note: to_stringified_spec.rb has tests for all other data types
   end
 
+  describe 'when serializing resources' do
+    require 'puppet_spec/compiler'
+    include PuppetSpec::Compiler
+
+    it 'should do something' do
+      resource = compile_to_catalog('notify {"foo": message => Deferred("func", ["a", "b", "c"])}')
+
+      # This should be true by default
+      if Puppet[:rich_data]
+        expect(resource.to_data_hash.class).to be(Hash)
+      end
+
+      expect {
+        Puppet.override(rich_data: false) do
+          resource.to_data_hash
+        end
+      }.to raise_error(Puppet::PreformattedError)
+    end
+  end
+
   describe "when converting from json" do
     before do
       @data = {