diff --git a/src/Symfony/Component/Serializer/Normalizer/AbstractNormalizer.php b/src/Symfony/Component/Serializer/Normalizer/AbstractNormalizer.php
index 08d6ff79db..fe8b05ef86 100644
--- a/src/Symfony/Component/Serializer/Normalizer/AbstractNormalizer.php
+++ b/src/Symfony/Component/Serializer/Normalizer/AbstractNormalizer.php
@@ -227,8 +227,8 @@ abstract class AbstractNormalizer implements NormalizerInterface, DenormalizerIn
         }
 
         $groups = false;
-        if (isset($context[static::GROUPS]) && \is_array($context[static::GROUPS])) {
-            $groups = $context[static::GROUPS];
+        if (isset($context[static::GROUPS]) && (\is_array($context[static::GROUPS]) || is_scalar($context[static::GROUPS]))) {
+            $groups = (array) $context[static::GROUPS];
         } elseif (!isset($context[static::ALLOW_EXTRA_ATTRIBUTES]) || $context[static::ALLOW_EXTRA_ATTRIBUTES]) {
             return false;
         }
diff --git a/src/Symfony/Component/Serializer/Tests/Normalizer/AbstractNormalizerTest.php b/src/Symfony/Component/Serializer/Tests/Normalizer/AbstractNormalizerTest.php
index 28edc05872..46f5bb46f2 100644
--- a/src/Symfony/Component/Serializer/Tests/Normalizer/AbstractNormalizerTest.php
+++ b/src/Symfony/Component/Serializer/Tests/Normalizer/AbstractNormalizerTest.php
@@ -92,6 +92,9 @@ class AbstractNormalizerTest extends TestCase
         $result = $this->normalizer->getAllowedAttributes('c', array(AbstractNormalizer::GROUPS => array('test')), false);
         $this->assertEquals(array($a2, $a4), $result);
 
+        $result = $this->normalizer->getAllowedAttributes('c', array(AbstractNormalizer::GROUPS => 'test'), false);
+        $this->assertEquals(array($a2, $a4), $result);
+
         $result = $this->normalizer->getAllowedAttributes('c', array(AbstractNormalizer::GROUPS => array('other')), false);
         $this->assertEquals(array($a3, $a4), $result);
     }