diff --git a/lib/ancestry/instance_methods.rb b/lib/ancestry/instance_methods.rb
index <HASH>..<HASH> 100644
--- a/lib/ancestry/instance_methods.rb
+++ b/lib/ancestry/instance_methods.rb
@@ -295,7 +295,7 @@ module Ancestry
     end
 
     def ancestry_callbacks_disabled?
-      !!@disable_ancestry_callbacks
+      defined?(@disable_ancestry_callbacks) && @disable_ancestry_callbacks
     end
 
   private
remove warnings for @disable_ancestry_callbacks

The variable was accessed without being defined