diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index d9c8c054..1a4613d0 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -44,6 +44,12 @@ All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file, in reverse
 
 ### Fixed
 
+- [#163](https://github.com/zendframework/zend-inputfilter/pull/163) adds code to `BaseInputFilter::populate()` to detect non-iterable,
+  non-null values passed as a value for a composed input filter. Previously, these would trigger
+  an exception; they now instead result in an empty array being used to populate the
+  input filter, which will generally result in invalidation without causing an
+  exception.
+
 - [#162](https://github.com/zendframework/zend-inputfilter/pull/162) fixes incorrect abstract service factory registration in `ConfigProvider`as per
   the [latest documentation](https://docs.zendframework.com/zend-inputfilter/specs/#setup).  In particular, it ensures that the `InputFilterAbstractFactory`
   is registered under the `input_filters` configuration instead of the
diff --git a/src/BaseInputFilter.php b/src/BaseInputFilter.php
index 10aff0d3..124a16b3 100644
--- a/src/BaseInputFilter.php
+++ b/src/BaseInputFilter.php
@@ -523,6 +523,11 @@ protected function populate()
             $value = $this->data[$name];
 
             if ($input instanceof InputFilterInterface) {
+                // Fixes #159
+                if (! is_array($value) && ! $value instanceof Traversable) {
+                    $value = [];
+                }
+
                 $input->setData($value);
                 continue;
             }
diff --git a/test/BaseInputFilterTest.php b/test/BaseInputFilterTest.php
index 1685020b..829c82d6 100644
--- a/test/BaseInputFilterTest.php
+++ b/test/BaseInputFilterTest.php
@@ -585,6 +585,24 @@ public function testMerge()
         );
     }
 
+    public function testNestedInputFilterShouldAllowNonArrayValueForData()
+    {
+        $filter1 = new BaseInputFilter();
+        $nestedFilter = new BaseInputFilter();
+        $nestedFilter->add(new Input('nestedField1'));
+        $filter1->add($nestedFilter, 'nested');
+
+        // non scalar and non null value
+        $filter1->setData(['nested' => false]);
+        self::assertNull($filter1->getValues()['nested']['nestedField1']);
+
+        $filter1->setData(['nested' => 123]);
+        self::assertNull($filter1->getValues()['nested']['nestedField1']);
+
+        $filter1->setData(['nested' => new stdClass()]);
+        self::assertNull($filter1->getValues()['nested']['nestedField1']);
+    }
+
     public function addMethodArgumentsProvider()
     {
         $inputTypes = $this->inputProvider();
diff --git a/test/InputFilterTest.php b/test/InputFilterTest.php
index fd1e9d81..16a45b6c 100644
--- a/test/InputFilterTest.php
+++ b/test/InputFilterTest.php
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@
 
 use ArrayIterator;
 use PHPUnit_Framework_MockObject_MockObject as MockObject;
+use stdClass;
 use Zend\InputFilter\Factory;
 use Zend\InputFilter\Input;
 use Zend\InputFilter\InputFilter;