He found pupils in a range of schools thought bands and even soloists "cool" - but regarded choristers as "weird".
At least the majority did – but he estimates that about one in 20 boys would love to be in a choir, and would develop a real love of singing.
In schools, boys are highly unlikely to join the choir – even though many of them will sing their hearts out at football matches on a Saturday.
The researchers' starting point was that it has long been known that singing is not top of boys' wish lists, a reason commonly given being that boys do not want to "sound like girls".
But that was not the reason. What they found was a vocal redefinition of the word "boy". Dr Ashley worked with a nationally representative sample of schools of different sorts and five cathedral choirs.
The schools included rural and urban performing arts colleges, inner-city and Welsh-speaking comprehensives, a boys' grammar school, three cathedral choir schools and a similar range of primary schools.
"The first thing we discovered is that it's choral singing that's in trouble," he said. "Solo or band singing is actually quite 'cool' for boys.”
