diff --git a/src/core/plugins/spec/actions.js b/src/core/plugins/spec/actions.js
index 1f43ca99..7465574c 100644
--- a/src/core/plugins/spec/actions.js
+++ b/src/core/plugins/spec/actions.js
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 import YAML from "js-yaml"
 import parseUrl from "url-parse"
 import serializeError from "serialize-error"
+import { isJSONObject } from "core/utils"
 
 // Actions conform to FSA (flux-standard-actions)
 // {type: string,payload: Any|Error, meta: obj, error: bool}
@@ -216,8 +217,14 @@ export const executeRequest = (req) =>
       // OAS3 request feature support
       req.server = oas3Selectors.selectedServer()
       req.serverVariables = oas3Selectors.serverVariables(req.server).toJS()
-      req.requestBody = oas3Selectors.requestBodyValue(pathName, method)
       req.requestContentType = oas3Selectors.requestContentType(pathName, method)
+      const requestBody = oas3Selectors.requestBodyValue(pathName, method)
+
+      if(isJSONObject(requestBody)) {
+        req.requestBody = JSON.parse(requestBody)
+      } else {
+        req.requestBody = requestBody
+      }
     }
 
     let parsedRequest = Object.assign({}, req)
diff --git a/src/core/utils.js b/src/core/utils.js
index 9a04329e..743c4749 100644
--- a/src/core/utils.js
+++ b/src/core/utils.js
@@ -13,6 +13,25 @@ const DEFAULT_REPONSE_KEY = "default"
 
 export const isImmutable = (maybe) => Im.Iterable.isIterable(maybe)
 
+export function isJSONObject (str) {
+  try {
+    var o = JSON.parse(str)
+
+    // Handle non-exception-throwing cases:
+    // Neither JSON.parse(false) or JSON.parse(1234) throw errors, hence the type-checking,
+    // but... JSON.parse(null) returns null, and typeof null === "object",
+    // so we must check for that, too. Thankfully, null is falsey, so this suffices:
+    if (o && typeof o === "object") {
+      return o
+    }
+  }
+  catch (e) {
+    // do nothing
+  }
+
+  return false
+}
+
 export function objectify (thing) {
   if(!isObject(thing))
     return {}