diff --git a/checker/src/main/java/org/checkerframework/checker/nullness/NullnessVisitor.java b/checker/src/main/java/org/checkerframework/checker/nullness/NullnessVisitor.java
index 369f0d4a6d9d..2539e93f1a80 100644
--- a/checker/src/main/java/org/checkerframework/checker/nullness/NullnessVisitor.java
+++ b/checker/src/main/java/org/checkerframework/checker/nullness/NullnessVisitor.java
@@ -771,6 +771,33 @@ public Void visitDoWhileLoop(DoWhileLoopTree tree, Void p) {
   @Override
   public Void visitConditionalExpression(ConditionalExpressionTree tree, Void p) {
     checkForNullability(tree.getCondition(), CONDITION_NULLABLE);
+    // If the overall conditional expression has a primitive Java type but one or both
+    // operand expressions are reference types, then unboxing will occur as part of
+    // evaluating the conditional.  In that case, check the operand(s) for possible
+    // nullness (unboxing.of.nullable).
+    AnnotatedTypeMirror type = atypeFactory.getAnnotatedType(tree);
+    // Only check for unboxing when javac has chosen a primitive underlying type
+    // for the conditional expression, but one or both operands are non-primitive.
+    if (type.getKind().isPrimitive()) {
+      ExpressionTree trueExpr = tree.getTrueExpression();
+      ExpressionTree falseExpr = tree.getFalseExpression();
+      boolean trueNeedsUnboxing = !TypesUtils.isPrimitive(TreeUtils.typeOf(trueExpr));
+      boolean falseNeedsUnboxing = !TypesUtils.isPrimitive(TreeUtils.typeOf(falseExpr));
+
+      if (trueNeedsUnboxing) {
+        if (!checkForNullability(trueExpr, UNBOXING_OF_NULLABLE)) {
+          // If we reported an unboxing.of.nullable error for the true arm, stop
+          // further checking to avoid cascading errors.
+          return null;
+        }
+      }
+      if (falseNeedsUnboxing) {
+        if (!checkForNullability(falseExpr, UNBOXING_OF_NULLABLE)) {
+          return null;
+        }
+      }
+    }
+
     return super.visitConditionalExpression(tree, p);
   }
 
diff --git a/checker/tests/nullness/Issue6849.java b/checker/tests/nullness/Issue6849.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..553b9a7d6620
--- /dev/null
+++ b/checker/tests/nullness/Issue6849.java
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+import java.util.*;
+import org.checkerframework.checker.nullness.qual.*;
+
+public class Issue6849 {
+
+  public static <T> T m(List<T> lst) {
+    return lst.get(0);
+  }
+
+  public static void main(String[] args) {
+    List<@Nullable Integer> lst = new LinkedList<>();
+    lst.add(null);
+    // :: error: [unboxing.of.nullable]
+    int y = ((true) ? Issue6849.<@Nullable Integer>m(lst) : 10);
+  }
+}
diff --git a/docs/manual/contributors.tex b/docs/manual/contributors.tex
index fc5a6d8872f5..2eb88be2fa3b 100644
--- a/docs/manual/contributors.tex
+++ b/docs/manual/contributors.tex
@@ -141,6 +141,7 @@
 Steph Dietzel,
 Stephan Schroevers,
 Stuart Pernsteiner,
+Suvrat Acharya,
 Suzanne Millstein,
 Thomas Schweizer,
 Thomas Wei\ss schuh,