Pound Pup Legacy

Over the years, I have developed quite a collection of cyber-contacts and pen-pals.  Not once have I ever been correct in my ability to match the image I imagined in my mind to the photograph sent to me.

There's a part of me that believes this is yet another subtle adoption-issue that relates to my inability to see others who are biologically related/similar to me.  Either that, or I completely lack the ability to attach visual description to physical appearance, making all my visual assumptions and connections "wrong".

In any case, I was wondering, how many people relate a certain image or appearance (and attachment) to a person based on what's shared between words, only to be completely wrong (and disappointed) because a person's image did not live-up to your "mental expectation"?  In other words, do the looks of a person dictate the direction of future contact and conversations?