\(LIST) is documented to return a list of references to each member of the LIST in some cases. 

>perl -e"print qq{$_: $$_\n} for \( 'a', 'b', 'c' );"
SCALAR(0x239b9c): a
SCALAR(0x239c9c): b
SCALAR(0x239cec): c

>perl -e"print qq{$_: $$_\n} for \qw( a b c );"
SCALAR(0x239b9c): a
SCALAR(0x239c9c): b
SCALAR(0x239cec): c

>perl -e"@a = qw( a b c ); print qq{$_: $$_\n} for \(@a);"
SCALAR(0x239bac): a
SCALAR(0x239c5c): b
SCALAR(0x239cac): c

>perl -e"@a = qw( a b c ); print qq{$_: @$_\n} for \@a;"
ARRAY(0x1829a04): a b c

[download]

Same goes for subs, apparently. 

>perl -e"print qq{$_: $$_\n} for \sub { qw( a b c ) }->();"
SCALAR(0x239c5c): a
SCALAR(0x239cac): b
SCALAR(0x239cbc): c

[download]

Update: Clarified some.

Update: This differs from x's behaviour 

>perl -le"@a = 'a' x 5; print 0+@a"
1

>perl -le"@a = ('a') x 5; print 0+@a"
5

>perl -le"@a = qw( a ) x 5; print 0+@a"
5

>perl -le"@a = sub { qw( a ) }->() x 5; print 0+@a"
1

[download]

In reply to Re: Why does foo() evaluate in array context in "${\foo()}"? by ikegami
in thread Why does foo() evaluate in array context in "${\foo()}"? by ELISHEVA

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