regarding "Boolean", see "Scalar values" in perldata:

A scalar value is interpreted as FALSE in the Boolean sense if it is undefined, the null string or the number 0 (or its string equivalent, "0"), and TRUE if it is anything else. The Boolean context is just a special kind of scalar context where no conversion to a string or a number is ever performed. Negation of a true value by ! or not returns a special false value. When evaluated as a string it is treated as "" , but as a number, it is treated as 0. Most Perl operators that return true or false behave this way.

You seem to think upon a "really" boolean datatype with exactly two distinct values. This is not the case here.