why is beveling working differently on these objects?

Question

1. so i have these two objects, which are structurally basically the same.

2. If i select the first object, tab into edit mode, select the highlighted edgeloops (shown on the left), and add a bevel with Ctrl + b with the shown settings, I get the result on the right.

3. Now, if i tab out of edit mode, select the second object, and apply the same procedure with the same settings, I get the result on the right, as you can see, the results are different.

4. Now, in object mode, if I had selected the second object first and first object second, hit Ctrl + J to join them, tab into edit mode, and apply the procedure again, I would've gotten this in this case, the result is similar to that of the first object.

5. If i select the second object first and first object second when joining the objects, the result is reversed:

Any idea why this is? Both of them are simple objects made using the same procedure.

thanks!