Neuroscience is showing that our perceptions are heavily based on what we expect to see. I can link this to online conversations I've had where people with different religious or political views struggled to communicate online because they were projecting their expectations onto the person they were talking to. Or people taking about how a religious conversion changed how they saw reality, as well as personal experiences where my expectations influenced my perception of the world around me in significant ways as well as the concept that some people have that putting good thoughts out into the universe will bring good things, or focusing on what you want to happen in your life will make the universe make it happen for you.