Despite the recognized importance of leadership perception and individual differences in various cultures, our understanding of each of these variables is limited. The influence of fundamental cognitive styles (context dependent vs. independent) in different cultures and individual differences within culture has rarely been discussed. Current leadership perception research typically depends on surveys which cannot capture spontaneous responses that reflect both automatic and controlled processes. To better understand cross-cultural leadership perception, this study recruited two cultural groups (e.g., Americans and East Asians) and employed both qualitative (e.g., picture recognition tasks) and quantitative (Conditional Reasoning Tests) methods to examine the effect of culture and individual differences (power motive) on leadership perception. Findings and implications for future research are discussed.