diff --git a/datamodel/high/base/example.go b/datamodel/high/base/example.go
index 3ac752c..e1985a4 100644
--- a/datamodel/high/base/example.go
+++ b/datamodel/high/base/example.go
@@ -60,7 +60,9 @@ func (e *Example) MarshalYAML() (interface{}, error) {
 // MarshalJSON will marshal this into a JSON byte slice
 func (e *Example) MarshalJSON() ([]byte, error) {
 	var g map[string]any
-	e.Value.Decode(&g)
+	nb := high.NewNodeBuilder(e, e.low)
+	r := nb.Render()
+	r.Decode(&g)
 	return json.Marshal(g)
 }
 
diff --git a/datamodel/high/base/example_test.go b/datamodel/high/base/example_test.go
index ca09223..2463679 100644
--- a/datamodel/high/base/example_test.go
+++ b/datamodel/high/base/example_test.go
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ package base
 
 import (
 	"context"
+	"encoding/json"
 	"fmt"
 	"strings"
 	"testing"
@@ -53,6 +54,21 @@ x-hack: code`
 	// render the example as YAML
 	rendered, _ := highExample.Render()
 	assert.Equal(t, yml, strings.TrimSpace(string(rendered)))
+
+	// render the example as JSON
+	var err error
+	rendered, err = json.Marshal(highExample)
+	assert.NoError(t, err)
+
+	var j map[string]any
+	_ = json.Unmarshal(rendered, &j)
+
+	assert.Equal(t, "an example", j["summary"])
+	assert.Equal(t, "something more", j["description"])
+	assert.Equal(t, "https://pb33f.io", j["externalValue"])
+	assert.Equal(t, "code", j["x-hack"])
+	assert.Equal(t, "a thing", j["value"])
+
 }
 
 func TestExtractExamples(t *testing.T) {