Different reactions to discipline

John and Dan are alike in a lot of ways and different in a lot of ways. We give timeouts to the kids when they're being mean, doing something naughty, not obeying us, etc., and make them sit in a different room by themselves for a few minutes. A lot of times when John gets a timeout he'll start crying (fake crying, that is) and tell us he's sorry over and over to try to get out of it, but finally go into the room, still crying. Well, Daniel is a different story. He was sticking out his tongue and spitting at John during lunch (a frequent occurrence unfortunately) so I told Dan he needed a timeout and to go into my room. Then he looked at me and smiled then started laughing. I told him more firmly to go to timeout and reached to grab his arm, but he started running from me and laughed harder! I had to chase him down then carry him to the room with him laughing the whole time. It kind of made it hard to be overly upset with him, but he served his time in the room, then happily came out. I don't know which reaction I prefer. I feel like discipline for Daniel sometimes goes in one ear and out the other. And I'm not sure I want to find out how these different reactions will transfer over to the teenage years!