diff --git a/scrapy/selector/unified.py b/scrapy/selector/unified.py
index fa91e2904..0bd6d49a2 100644
--- a/scrapy/selector/unified.py
+++ b/scrapy/selector/unified.py
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ from typing import Any, Literal
 
 from parsel import Selector as _ParselSelector
 
-from scrapy.http import HtmlResponse, TextResponse, XmlResponse
+from scrapy.http import HtmlResponse, JsonResponse, TextResponse, XmlResponse
 from scrapy.utils.python import to_bytes
 from scrapy.utils.response import get_base_url
 from scrapy.utils.trackref import object_ref
@@ -34,6 +34,11 @@ class Selector(_ParselSelector, object_ref):
     An instance of :class:`Selector` is a wrapper over response to select
     certain parts of its content.
 
+    .. versionchanged:: VERSION
+       The type of a :class:`~scrapy.http.JsonResponse` selector is now
+       ``json``, and the type of the selector of any other response that is
+       neither HTML nor XML is determined from the response body.
+
     ``response`` is an :class:`~scrapy.http.HtmlResponse` or an
     :class:`~scrapy.http.XmlResponse` object that will be used for selecting
     and extracting data.
@@ -46,11 +51,20 @@ class Selector(_ParselSelector, object_ref):
     ``"json"``, ``"text"`` or ``None`` (default). It's passed to
     :class:`parsel.Selector` and its meaning is defined there. However, when
     ``type`` is ``None``, it is set to ``"xml"`` for an
-    :class:`~scrapy.http.XmlResponse` and to ``"html"`` for an
+    :class:`~scrapy.http.XmlResponse`, to ``"json"`` for a
+    :class:`~scrapy.http.JsonResponse` and to ``"html"`` for an
     :class:`~scrapy.http.HtmlResponse` or for ``text`` before passing it to
     :class:`parsel.Selector`, which for any other response is left to
     determine the type from the response body.
 
+    The response class, and hence the selector type, comes from the content
+    type that the website reports. When a website reports the wrong content
+    type, recast the response into the right class:
+
+    .. code-block:: python
+
+        response = response.replace(cls=HtmlResponse)
+
     .. note:: JSON selector support requires ``parsel`` 1.8.0 or higher. With
        older versions setting ``type`` to ``"json"`` or ``"text"`` is not
        supported.
@@ -72,11 +86,13 @@ class Selector(_ParselSelector, object_ref):
                 f"{self.__class__.__name__}.__init__() received both response and text"
             )
 
-        # A response that is neither HTML nor XML, e.g. a JSON one, keeps type
-        # unset, so that parsel determines it from the body.
+        # Any other response, e.g. a plain-text one, keeps type unset, so that
+        # parsel determines it from the body.
         if type is None:
             if isinstance(response, XmlResponse):
                 type = "xml"  # noqa: A001
+            elif isinstance(response, JsonResponse):
+                type = "json"  # noqa: A001
             elif response is None or isinstance(response, HtmlResponse):
                 type = "html"  # noqa: A001
 
diff --git a/tests/test_selector.py b/tests/test_selector.py
index 98595ac93..ce6de9524 100644
--- a/tests/test_selector.py
+++ b/tests/test_selector.py
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ import parsel
 import pytest
 from packaging import version
 
-from scrapy.http import HtmlResponse, TextResponse, XmlResponse
+from scrapy.http import HtmlResponse, JsonResponse, TextResponse, XmlResponse
 from scrapy.selector import Selector
 
 PARSEL_VERSION = version.parse(getattr(parsel, "__version__", "0.0"))
@@ -60,6 +60,30 @@ class TestSelector:
             '<div><img src="a.jpg"><p>Hello</p></div>'
         ]
 
+    @pytest.mark.skipif(not PARSEL_18_PLUS, reason="parsel < 1.8 doesn't support json")
+    def test_flavor_detection_json(self) -> None:
+        response = JsonResponse(
+            "http://example.com", body=b'{"a": "b"}', encoding="utf-8"
+        )
+        assert Selector(response).type == "json"
+        assert response.jmespath("a").get() == "b"
+
+    @pytest.mark.skipif(not PARSEL_18_PLUS, reason="parsel < 1.8 doesn't support json")
+    def test_flavor_detection_json_with_html_body(self) -> None:
+        body = b"<div><p>Hello</p></div>"
+        response = JsonResponse("http://example.com", body=body, encoding="utf-8")
+        assert Selector(response).type == "json"
+
+        html_response = response.replace(cls=HtmlResponse)
+        assert Selector(html_response).type == "html"
+        assert html_response.css("p::text").get() == "Hello"
+
+    def test_flavor_detection_text(self) -> None:
+        response = TextResponse(
+            "http://example.com", body=b"<div><p>Hello</p></div>", encoding="utf-8"
+        )
+        assert Selector(response).type == "html"
+
     def test_http_header_encoding_precedence(self):
         # '\xa3'     = pound symbol in unicode
         # '\xc2\xa3' = pound symbol in utf-8