diff --git a/.changes/unreleased/Features-20220309-163817.yaml b/.changes/unreleased/Features-20220309-163817.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..98e9775f432
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changes/unreleased/Features-20220309-163817.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+kind: Features
+body: Change behaviour of `non_null` test so that it only `select`s all columns if
+  `--store-failures` is enabled.
+time: 2022-03-09T16:38:17.160568Z
+custom:
+  Author: willbowditch
+  Issue: "4769"
+  PR: "4777"
diff --git a/core/dbt/include/global_project/macros/generic_test_sql/not_null.sql b/core/dbt/include/global_project/macros/generic_test_sql/not_null.sql
index 52c1ff0b6e4..73e3401f930 100644
--- a/core/dbt/include/global_project/macros/generic_test_sql/not_null.sql
+++ b/core/dbt/include/global_project/macros/generic_test_sql/not_null.sql
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 {% macro default__test_not_null(model, column_name) %}
 
-select *
+{% set column_list = '*' if should_store_failures() else column_name %}
+
+select {{ column_list }}
 from {{ model }}
 where {{ column_name }} is null