I saw an episode of Oprah Winfrey's show several years ago in which
she put a fake scar on women's faces and then sent them out on a blind
date (in a restaurant with no mirrors).  After the date the women were
asked if they noticed their date treating them differently or staring
at the scar.  All of them said yes.  What they didn't know was that
the fake scars had been removed just before their dates. They
interpreted the men's behaviour in the way that reinforced their
expectation.  Is there a name in psychology or sociology for this
phenomenon of seeing what you expect
to see?

"Subjective perception" is a frequently used term that could apply to
what you describe.  Searching with the term, turned up many medical
sites.  You can try that, yourself.

Here is one that I believe shows many words that appear in texts in
conjuction with "subjective perception:
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~lemur/science/articles/00368075.di002043.00p0258v.html