diff --git a/src/datasets/dataset_dict.py b/src/datasets/dataset_dict.py
index 9393d0960d3..26b32c51b62 100644
--- a/src/datasets/dataset_dict.py
+++ b/src/datasets/dataset_dict.py
@@ -830,6 +830,7 @@ def map(
         fn_kwargs: Optional[dict] = None,
         num_proc: Optional[int] = None,
         desc: Optional[str] = None,
+        try_original_type: Optional[bool] = True,
     ) -> "DatasetDict":
         """
         Apply a function to all the examples in the table (individually or in batches) and update the table.
@@ -908,6 +909,9 @@ def map(
                 use multiprocessing.
             desc (`str`, *optional*, defaults to `None`):
                 Meaningful description to be displayed alongside with the progress bar while mapping examples.
+            try_original_type (`Optional[bool]`, defaults to `True`):
+                Try to keep the types of the original columns (e.g. int32 -> int32).
+                Set to False if you want to always infer new types.
 
         Example:
 
@@ -956,6 +960,7 @@ def map(
                 fn_kwargs=fn_kwargs,
                 num_proc=num_proc,
                 desc=desc,
+                try_original_type=try_original_type,
             )
 
             if with_split:
diff --git a/tests/test_dataset_dict.py b/tests/test_dataset_dict.py
index 83f0395718b..72f84071e1c 100644
--- a/tests/test_dataset_dict.py
+++ b/tests/test_dataset_dict.py
@@ -24,21 +24,27 @@
 
 
 class DatasetDictTest(TestCase):
-    def _create_dummy_dataset(self, multiple_columns=False):
+    def _create_dummy_dataset(self, multiple_columns=False, int_to_float=False):
         if multiple_columns:
             data = {"col_1": [3, 2, 1, 0], "col_2": ["a", "b", "c", "d"]}
             dset = Dataset.from_dict(data)
+        elif int_to_float:
+            data = {
+                "text": ["text1", "text2", "text3", "text4"],
+                "labels": [[1, 1, 1, 0, 0], [0, 0, 0, 1, 0], [0, 0, 0, 1, 1], [0, 0, 0, 1, 0]],
+            }
+            dset = Dataset.from_dict(data)
         else:
             dset = Dataset.from_dict(
                 {"filename": ["my_name-train" + "_" + f"{x:03d}" for x in np.arange(30).tolist()]}
             )
         return dset
 
-    def _create_dummy_dataset_dict(self, multiple_columns=False) -> DatasetDict:
+    def _create_dummy_dataset_dict(self, multiple_columns=False, int_to_float=False) -> DatasetDict:
         return DatasetDict(
             {
-                "train": self._create_dummy_dataset(multiple_columns=multiple_columns),
-                "test": self._create_dummy_dataset(multiple_columns=multiple_columns),
+                "train": self._create_dummy_dataset(multiple_columns=multiple_columns, int_to_float=int_to_float),
+                "test": self._create_dummy_dataset(multiple_columns=multiple_columns, int_to_float=int_to_float),
             }
         )
 
@@ -325,6 +331,28 @@ def test_map(self):
             self.assertListEqual(sorted(mapped_dsets_2["train"].column_names), sorted(["filename", "foo", "bar"]))
             del dsets, mapped_dsets_1, mapped_dsets_2
 
+        # casting int labels to float labels
+        with tempfile.TemporaryDirectory() as tmp_dir:
+            dset_dict = self._create_dummy_dataset_dict(int_to_float=True)
+
+            def _preprocess(examples):
+                result = {"labels": [list(map(float, labels)) for labels in examples["labels"]]}
+                return result
+
+            with dset_dict.map(
+                _preprocess, remove_columns=["labels", "text"], batched=True, try_original_type=True
+            ) as dset_test:
+                for labels in dset_test["test"]["labels"]:
+                    for label in labels:
+                        self.assertIsInstance(label, int)
+
+            with dset_dict.map(
+                _preprocess, remove_columns=["labels", "text"], batched=True, try_original_type=False
+            ) as dset_test:
+                for labels in dset_test["test"]["labels"]:
+                    for label in labels:
+                        self.assertIsInstance(label, float)
+
     def test_iterable_map(self):
         dsets = self._create_dummy_iterable_dataset_dict()
         fn_kwargs = {"n": 3}