diff --git a/src/Model/ViewModel.php b/src/Model/ViewModel.php
index 4af8f3e6..6078feb7 100644
--- a/src/Model/ViewModel.php
+++ b/src/Model/ViewModel.php
@@ -262,9 +262,10 @@ public function setVariables($variables, $overwrite = false)
         }
 
         if ($overwrite) {
-            if (!is_object($variables) && !$variables instanceof ArrayAccess) {
+            if (is_object($variables) && !$variables instanceof ArrayAccess) {
                 $variables = ArrayUtils::iteratorToArray($variables);
             }
+
             $this->variables = $variables;
             return $this;
         }
diff --git a/test/Model/TestAsset/Variable.php b/test/Model/TestAsset/Variable.php
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..f1569105
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/Model/TestAsset/Variable.php
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+<?php
+/**
+ * Zend Framework (http://framework.zend.com/)
+ *
+ * @link      http://github.com/zendframework/zf2 for the canonical source repository
+ * @copyright Copyright (c) 2005-2012 Zend Technologies USA Inc. (http://www.zend.com)
+ * @license   http://framework.zend.com/license/new-bsd New BSD License
+ * @package   Zend_View
+ */
+
+namespace ZendTest\View\Model\TestAsset;
+
+use Iterator;
+
+class Variable implements Iterator
+{
+    public function current()
+    {
+    }
+
+    public function key()
+    {
+    }
+
+    public function next()
+    {
+    }
+
+    public function rewind()
+    {
+    }
+
+    public function valid()
+    {
+    }
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/test/Model/ViewModelTest.php b/test/Model/ViewModelTest.php
index 4d2a9ad3..151d4879 100644
--- a/test/Model/ViewModelTest.php
+++ b/test/Model/ViewModelTest.php
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
 use PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase as TestCase;
 use Zend\View\Model\ViewModel;
 use Zend\View\Variables as ViewVariables;
+use ZendTest\View\Model\TestAsset\Variable;
 
 /**
  * @category   Zend
@@ -53,6 +54,13 @@ public function testAllowsPassingTraversableArgumentsToVariablesAndOptionsInCons
         $this->assertSame(iterator_to_array($options), $model->getOptions());
     }
 
+    public function testAllowsPassingNonArrayAccessObjectsAsArrayInConstructor()
+    {
+        $vars  = array('foo' => new Variable);
+        $model = new ViewModel($vars);
+        $this->assertSame($vars, $model->getVariables());
+    }
+
     public function testCanSetVariablesSingly()
     {
         $model = new ViewModel(array('foo' => 'bar'));