Inconclusive necessity effects of basic psychological need satisfaction and frustration on wellbeing at work: A comment on Olafsen and Marescaux (2025)

Olafsen and Marescaux (2025) conducted analyses with the necessary condition analysis (NCA) and concluded that both satisfaction and low frustration of autonomy and low frustration of competence constitute necessities for employee wellbeing. However, it has been established that necessity effects in the NCA may be spurious. Here we show that the necessity effects reported by Olafsen and Marescaux were not significantly stronger than could be expected due to correlations between variables, meaning that these necessity effects may have been spurious. It is important for researchers using the NCA to be aware of its susceptibility to spurious findings in order not to overinterpret findings. We recommend researchers using the NCA to scrutinize their findings by estimating ranges of spuriousness, i.e., effects that could be expected due to the correlation between variables. If the estimated necessity effect does not fall above the range of spuriousness, conclusions of necessity should probably be suspended.