Misreading

Misreading is the act of perceiving or interpreting written text or other visual cues in a way that is incorrect or misleading relative to the intended message. It can involve errors in decoding letters and numbers, misinterpreting punctuation, or reading a sentence with the wrong meaning due to faulty perception or processing. Misreading is a common phenomenon and can occur in everyday reading, education, journalism, and data interpretation.

Causes include perceptual factors such as ambiguous typography, poor lighting, font style, or closely shaped letters (for example, similar-looking letters or digits like l and 1, O and 0). Cognitive factors include top-down processing, expectations, fatigue, distractions, and incomplete domain knowledge. Reading disorders such as dyslexia can increase the likelihood of misreading, though misreading is not exclusive to those conditions.

Examples include reading POLICE as PO LICE due to letter spacing, interpreting a sign EXIT as EXI T because of a font, misreading 5 as S in a dataset, or missing the intended meaning of a sentence with ambiguous punctuation (for instance, "Let's eat, grandma" vs "Let's eat grandma").

Effects of misreading can range from minor misunderstandings to serious errors in writing, editing, navigation, or safety-critical decisions. In research and journalism, misreading can lead to incorrect conclusions if the text is not verified or contextualized.

Mitigation strategies include slowing reading pace, rereading passages, reading aloud, checking with original sources, improving typography and lighting, and using aids such as glasses or screen settings. Awareness of cognitive biases and literacy support can also reduce misreading in educational and professional settings.