purple hat therapy

noun

Any medical practice in which an established form of therapy is combined with an unlikely new addition and is then claimed to be effective because of the new addition, when in fact the effectiveness is due to the established component.

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PHT
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Meanings

nounpurple hat therapy (countable and uncountable, plural purple hat therapies)

plural purple hat therapies

  1. countableuncountableAny medical practice in which an established form of therapy is combined with an unlikely new addition and is then claimed to be effective because of the new addition, when in fact the effectiveness is due to the established component.

    Synonyms: PHT

Synonyms & antonyms

nounAny medical practice in which an established form of therapy is combined with an unlikely new addition and is then claimed to be effective because of the new addition, when in fact the effectiveness is due to the established component.

Similar
PHT

Origin

Coined in a 2003 paper by Gerald Rosen and Gerald Davison, from the idea of wearing a purple hat in addition to other treatment.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

purple hat therapy. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/purple%20hat%20therapy

MLA

“purple hat therapy.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/purple%20hat%20therapy. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “purple hat therapy,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/purple%20hat%20therapy.

Source: purple hat therapy on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.