diff --git a/org.springframework.test/src/main/java/org/springframework/test/context/ContextLoaderUtils.java b/org.springframework.test/src/main/java/org/springframework/test/context/ContextLoaderUtils.java
index 63aca620643..6f677a610f5 100644
--- a/org.springframework.test/src/main/java/org/springframework/test/context/ContextLoaderUtils.java
+++ b/org.springframework.test/src/main/java/org/springframework/test/context/ContextLoaderUtils.java
@@ -254,6 +254,12 @@ abstract class ContextLoaderUtils {
 			}
 
 			if (!ObjectUtils.isEmpty(profiles)) {
+
+				// Preserve the order in which the profiles were declared by
+				// reversing the array. This is necessary since we prepend each
+				// non-empty element to the aggregated list as we traverse the
+				// class hierarchy. Note that the following works because
+				// Arrays.asList() "writes through" to the underlying array.
 				Collections.reverse(Arrays.<String> asList(profiles));
 
 				for (String profile : profiles) {
diff --git a/org.springframework.test/src/test/java/org/springframework/test/context/ContextLoaderUtilsTests.java b/org.springframework.test/src/test/java/org/springframework/test/context/ContextLoaderUtilsTests.java
index 0ed8ccb4927..333422fe67a 100644
--- a/org.springframework.test/src/test/java/org/springframework/test/context/ContextLoaderUtilsTests.java
+++ b/org.springframework.test/src/test/java/org/springframework/test/context/ContextLoaderUtilsTests.java
@@ -36,6 +36,20 @@ public class ContextLoaderUtilsTests {
 		assertEquals(0, profiles.length);
 	}
 
+	@Test
+	public void resolveActivatedProfilesWithNoProfilesDeclared() {
+		String[] profiles = ContextLoaderUtils.resolveActivatedProfiles(NoProfilesDeclared.class);
+		assertNotNull(profiles);
+		assertEquals(0, profiles.length);
+	}
+
+	@Test
+	public void resolveActivatedProfilesWithEmptyProfiles() {
+		String[] profiles = ContextLoaderUtils.resolveActivatedProfiles(EmptyProfiles.class);
+		assertNotNull(profiles);
+		assertEquals(0, profiles.length);
+	}
+
 	@Test
 	public void resolveActivatedProfilesWithLocalAnnotation() {
 		String[] profiles = ContextLoaderUtils.resolveActivatedProfiles(Foo.class);
@@ -74,6 +88,14 @@ public class ContextLoaderUtilsTests {
 	private static class Enigma {
 	}
 
+	@ActivateProfiles
+	private static class NoProfilesDeclared {
+	}
+
+	@ActivateProfiles({ "    ", "\t" })
+	private static class EmptyProfiles {
+	}
+
 	@ActivateProfiles(profiles = "foo")
 	private static class Foo {
 	}