diff --git a/src/fairchem/core/trainers/base_trainer.py b/src/fairchem/core/trainers/base_trainer.py
index 968a7c2c7..12e2e61e7 100644
--- a/src/fairchem/core/trainers/base_trainer.py
+++ b/src/fairchem/core/trainers/base_trainer.py
@@ -279,13 +279,13 @@ def load_datasets(self) -> None:
 
         # Default all of the dataset portions to {} if
         # they don't exist, or are null
-        if self.config.get("dataset", None):
+        if not self.config.get("dataset", None):
             self.config["dataset"] = {}
-        if self.config.get("val_dataset", None):
+        if not self.config.get("val_dataset", None):
             self.config["val_dataset"] = {}
-        if self.config.get("test_dataset", None):
+        if not self.config.get("test_dataset", None):
             self.config["test_dataset"] = {}
-        if self.config.get("relax_dataset", None):
+        if not self.config.get("relax_dataset", None):
             self.config["relax_dataset"] = {}
 
         # load train, val, test datasets