diff --git a/modules/ai_translate/src/Plugin/FieldTextExtractor/ReferenceFieldExtractor.php b/modules/ai_translate/src/Plugin/FieldTextExtractor/ReferenceFieldExtractor.php
index e889054f1ba269f2dd49dbc61e126c589f9e78e8..10ae83c09c9dcae72b9d04a91d803b1779137056 100644
--- a/modules/ai_translate/src/Plugin/FieldTextExtractor/ReferenceFieldExtractor.php
+++ b/modules/ai_translate/src/Plugin/FieldTextExtractor/ReferenceFieldExtractor.php
@@ -186,7 +186,8 @@ class ReferenceFieldExtractor implements ConfigurableFieldTextExtractorInterface
    *   TRUE to translate referenced entities of this type by default.
    */
   protected function entityTypeTranslatedDefault(string $entityTypeId) : bool {
-    $defaults = $this->config->get('reference_defaults', []);
+    $defaults = $this->config->get('reference_defaults') ?? [];
+
     // Default is to not translate entities of unknown type.
     return (array_search($entityTypeId, $defaults) !== FALSE);
   }