How to use Laravel response()->json() to return empty object instead of empty array

In Laravel 5.5

Route::get('/test2', function (){
    $data = (object) [];

    return response()->json($data);

});

it always returns [] rather than {}.

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another code:

Route::get('/test2', function (){
    $data = (object) [];

    return json_encode($data);

});

it correctly returns {}

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I want to use response()->json() helper to return empty object instead of empty array, is it possible?

via Chebli Mohamed