•Perceived economic competition and consumer ethnocentrism affect economic animosity.•Economic animosity has a negative impact on consumers’ foreign product judgment and their reluctance to buy a foreign product.•Economic animosity gives rise to anticipated regret of foreign product purchase.•Anticipated regret mediates the relationship between economic animosity and consumers’ reactions towards a foreign product. We use regret theory to explain the negative effect of economic animosity on consumers’ reactions towards a foreign product (i.e., product judgment and reluctant to buy). We conduct our study in Taiwan by collecting data via an online survey. Our results show that consumers’ economic animosity increases their anticipated regret towards purchasing a foreign product originating from a target market of animosity. Specifically, anticipated regret is found to mediate the link between economic animosity and foreign product judgment, which in turns affects consumers’ reluctance to buy. Our study is the first to consider the role of anticipated regret in explaining the negative effect of economic animosity on consumers’ reactions towards a foreign product. We also contribute to research by introducing two antecedents of economic animosity: perceived economic competition and consumer ethnocentrism.