diff --git a/ansible_runner/config/_base.py b/ansible_runner/config/_base.py
index <HASH>..<HASH> 100644
--- a/ansible_runner/config/_base.py
+++ b/ansible_runner/config/_base.py
@@ -147,7 +147,7 @@ class BaseConfig(object):
         self.runner_mode = runner_mode
         try:
             if self.settings and isinstance(self.settings, dict):
-                self.settings = self.settings.update(self.loader.load_file('env/settings', Mapping))
+                self.settings.update(self.loader.load_file('env/settings', Mapping))
             else:
                 self.settings = self.loader.load_file('env/settings', Mapping)
         except ConfigurationError:
@@ -157,7 +157,7 @@ class BaseConfig(object):
         if self.runner_mode == 'pexpect':
             try:
                 if self.passwords and isinstance(self.passwords, dict):
-                    self.passwords = self.passwords.update(self.loader.load_file('env/passwords', Mapping))
+                    self.passwords.update(self.loader.load_file('env/passwords', Mapping))
                 else:
                     self.passwords = self.passwords or self.loader.load_file('env/passwords', Mapping)
                 self.expect_passwords = {
Fix settings and password dict update

The update method on dict returns None, so we can not use the return value to set the variable as this will just delete the dictionary