diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index bf9d04a76..fbf1bae0a 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ Features added
 
 * Add ``:caption:`` option for sphinx.ext.inheritance_diagram.
 * #894: Add ``lualatexpdf`` and ``xelatexpdf`` as a make target to build PDF using lualatex or xelatex
+* #2471: Add config variable for default doctest flags.
 
 Bugs fixed
 ----------
diff --git a/doc/ext/doctest.rst b/doc/ext/doctest.rst
index 9b1b4e6d4..f3086f398 100644
--- a/doc/ext/doctest.rst
+++ b/doc/ext/doctest.rst
@@ -56,12 +56,9 @@ names.
 .. rst:directive:: .. doctest:: [group]
 
    A doctest-style code block.  You can use standard :mod:`doctest` flags for
-   controlling how actual output is compared with what you give as output.  By
-   default, these options are enabled: ``ELLIPSIS`` (allowing you to put
-   ellipses in the expected output that match anything in the actual output),
-   ``IGNORE_EXCEPTION_DETAIL`` (not comparing tracebacks),
-   ``DONT_ACCEPT_TRUE_FOR_1`` (by default, doctest accepts "True" in the output
-   where "1" is given -- this is a relic of pre-Python 2.2 times).
+   controlling how actual output is compared with what you give as output.  The
+   default set of flags is specified by the :confval:`doctest_default_flags`
+   configuration variable.
 
    This directive supports two options:
 
@@ -176,6 +173,20 @@ The following is an example for the usage of the directives.  The test via
 
 There are also these config values for customizing the doctest extension:
 
+.. confval:: doctest_default_flags
+
+   By default, these options are enabled:
+   
+   - ``ELLIPSIS``, allowing you to put ellipses in the expected output that
+     match anything in the actual output;
+   - ``IGNORE_EXCEPTION_DETAIL``, causing everything following the leftmost
+     colon and any module information in the exception name to be ignored;
+   - ``DONT_ACCEPT_TRUE_FOR_1``, rejecting "True" in the output where "1" is
+     given -- the default behavior of accepting this substitution is a relic of
+     pre-Python 2.2 times.
+
+   .. versionadded:: 1.5
+
 .. confval:: doctest_path
 
    A list of directories that will be added to :data:`sys.path` when the doctest
diff --git a/sphinx/ext/doctest.py b/sphinx/ext/doctest.py
index 0f5241a19..244762b69 100644
--- a/sphinx/ext/doctest.py
+++ b/sphinx/ext/doctest.py
@@ -214,8 +214,7 @@ class DocTestBuilder(Builder):
 
     def init(self):
         # default options
-        self.opt = doctest.DONT_ACCEPT_TRUE_FOR_1 | doctest.ELLIPSIS | \
-            doctest.IGNORE_EXCEPTION_DETAIL
+        self.opt = self.config.doctest_default_flags
 
         # HACK HACK HACK
         # doctest compiles its snippets with type 'single'. That is nice
@@ -464,4 +463,8 @@ def setup(app):
     app.add_config_value('doctest_test_doctest_blocks', 'default', False)
     app.add_config_value('doctest_global_setup', '', False)
     app.add_config_value('doctest_global_cleanup', '', False)
+    app.add_config_value(
+        'doctest_default_flags',
+        doctest.DONT_ACCEPT_TRUE_FOR_1 | doctest.ELLIPSIS | doctest.IGNORE_EXCEPTION_DETAIL,
+        False)
     return {'version': sphinx.__display_version__, 'parallel_read_safe': True}