Expectation Alters Perception: An Anecdote In Lieu Of Data

So I’m sitting on the couch typing away at my laptop, while next to me sat the Most Patient Man in the World (evidence being he’s lived with me almost a decade and is still in his right mind, more or less) typing at his. He turned on the TV for background noise and flipped through the channels before briefly settling on one calling itself “VH1 Classic” because that sounds so much better than “The Nostalgia Channel For People Too Old To Appreciate Stephenie Meyer.” I heard an obvious Journey concert, with Steve Perry caterwauling about folks going separate ways.

I glanced up at the TV just as the camera zoomed in on the singer, and cried out, “My God! What happened to his face? That’s got to be the worst plastic surgery I’ve ever seen.”

The Most Patient Man in the World explained that Steve Perry and Journey had long since gone their separate ways, and the band’s now fronted by an uncanny Perry soundalike from the Philippines. So I looked at the singer again – when I expected to see Steve Perry the aging Caucasian I’d recoiled in pity for a horribly mutilated human being, but once I realized this was a completely different person (and Filipino to boot) he wasn’t bad-looking at all.

Still, if Steve Perry goes under the knife trying to look younger and emerges looking like that, he should sue his plastic surgeon for everything he’s got.