I once received a bad peer review at work because my story estimates were "always bigger than the rest of the team."

What's funny is that no one ever bothered to check how accurate those estimates actually were. If they had, they would have seen that I was right a lot of the time.

Estimation is usually just theater. If I estimate low, it signals to everyone that I'm a hotshot programmer. I gain street cred. The business folks say, "Yeah, he's a go-getter. I like him." But no one ever checks to see if the estimates are correct.

If the goal is to get accurate estimates, the motivations are all wrong.