diff --git a/src/scrapy_redis/spiders.py b/src/scrapy_redis/spiders.py
index c82ad2e3..351c5ba5 100644
--- a/src/scrapy_redis/spiders.py
+++ b/src/scrapy_redis/spiders.py
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
 import time
 
 from . import connection, defaults
-from .utils import bytes_to_str
+from .utils import bytes_to_str, is_dict
 
 
 class RedisMixin(object):
@@ -171,7 +171,7 @@ def make_request_from_data(self, data):
 
         # change to json array
         parameter = {}
-        if type(formatted_data) == dict:
+        if is_dict(formatted_data):
             parameter = json.loads(formatted_data)
         else:
             print(TextColor.WARNING + "WARNING: String request is deprecated, please use JSON data format. \
diff --git a/src/scrapy_redis/utils.py b/src/scrapy_redis/utils.py
index fcaa649b..14674cce 100644
--- a/src/scrapy_redis/utils.py
+++ b/src/scrapy_redis/utils.py
@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
+import json
+from json import JSONDecodeError
+
 import six
 
 
@@ -11,9 +14,16 @@ class TextColor:
     ENDC = '\033[0m'
     BOLD = '\033[1m'
     UNDERLINE = '\033[4m'
-    
+
 def bytes_to_str(s, encoding='utf-8'):
     """Returns a str if a bytes object is given."""
     if six.PY3 and isinstance(s, bytes):
         return s.decode(encoding)
     return s
+
+def is_dict(string_content):
+    try:
+        json.loads(string_content)
+    except JSONDecodeError:
+        return False
+    return True