diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
index 8df6b75e653..4e26bbfb145 100644
--- a/.gitattributes
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -12,8 +12,8 @@
 *.xsl		whitespace=space-before-tab,trailing-space,tab-in-indent
 
 # Avoid confusing ASCII underlines with leftover merge conflict markers
-README		conflict-marker-size=32
-README.*	conflict-marker-size=32
+README		conflict-marker-size=48
+README.*	conflict-marker-size=48
 
 # Certain data files that contain special whitespace, and other special cases
 *.data						-whitespace