diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/googletest/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/googletest/package.py
index 4c523fd41b4..79b4c3c3577 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/googletest/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/googletest/package.py
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ def cmake_args(self):
             self.define_from_variant("BUILD_SHARED_LIBS", "shared"),
             self.define_from_variant("CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD", "cxxstd"),
         ]
-        args.append(self.define("gtest_disable_pthreads", not spec.satisfies("pthreads")))
+        args.append(self.define("gtest_disable_pthreads", not spec.satisfies("+pthreads")))
         if spec.satisfies("@1.8:"):
             # New style (contains both Google Mock and Google Test)
             args.append(self.define("BUILD_GTEST", True))