diff --git a/t/harness b/t/harness
index 05d0cee5462..49494225b1f 100644
--- a/t/harness
+++ b/t/harness
@@ -22,11 +22,14 @@ GetOptions(
     'jobs:1'            => \my $jobs,
     'icu:1'             => \my $do_icu,
     'long:1'            => \my $do_long,
-    'stress:0'          => \my $do_stress,
+    'stress:1'          => \my $do_stress,
     'archive=s'         => \my $archive,
     'parrot_revision=s' => \my $parrot_revision,
 );
 
+$do_long = 1 unless defined $do_long;
+$do_stress = 0 unless defined $do_stress;
+
 my @pass_through_options = grep m/^--?[^-]/, @ARGV;
 my @files = grep m/^[^-]/, @ARGV;