It's easy to do it the other way round - force list context. This can be done with (function(...)).

Putting parenthesis around an expression does NOT create list context:

    sub context {wantarray ? "LIST" : "SCALAR"}
    my $context = (context);
    print $context, "\n";
    __END__
    SCALAR
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Perhaps you are confused with:

    sub context {wantarray ? "LIST" : "SCALAR"}
    my($context) = context;
    print $context, "\n";
    __END__
    LIST
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