diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/scheduler/DAGScheduler.scala b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/scheduler/DAGScheduler.scala
index 88f6d32a0f272..603330e71956a 100644
--- a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/scheduler/DAGScheduler.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/scheduler/DAGScheduler.scala
@@ -137,6 +137,8 @@ class DAGScheduler(
   private[scheduler] val eventProcessLoop = new DAGSchedulerEventProcessLoop(this)
   taskScheduler.setDAGScheduler(this)
 
+  // Flag to control if reduce tasks are assigned preferred locations
+  private val shuffleLocalityEnabled = sc.getConf.getBoolean("spark.shuffle.locality.enabled", true)
   // Number of map, reduce tasks above which we do not assign preferred locations
   // based on map output sizes. We limit the size of jobs for which assign preferred locations
   // as sorting the locations by size becomes expensive.
@@ -1410,7 +1412,8 @@ class DAGScheduler(
       case s: ShuffleDependency[_, _, _] =>
         // For shuffle dependencies, pick the 5 locations with the largest map outputs as preferred
         // locations
-        if (rdd.partitions.size < SHUFFLE_PREF_REDUCE_THRESHOLD &&
+        if (shuffleLocalityEnabled &&
+            rdd.partitions.size < SHUFFLE_PREF_REDUCE_THRESHOLD &&
             s.rdd.partitions.size < SHUFFLE_PREF_MAP_THRESHOLD) {
           // Get the preferred map output locations for this reducer
           val topLocsForReducer = mapOutputTracker.getLocationsWithLargestOutputs(s.shuffleId,